Henry Willis
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Posts posted by Henry Willis
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It looks pretty fatal to me, at least in terms of 'economic' repair! I have a rather good photograph of the damage (devastation) - is it possible to put in on here or do we have to put a link to it on another site?
DW
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Make that four, one (St. John's Hororata) was sideswiped by a falling tower. Seriously wounded, but it does not look fatal.
It looks pretty fatal to me, at least in terms of 'economic' repair! I have a rather good photograph of the damage (devastation) - is it possible to put in on here or do we have to put a link to it on another site?
DW
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The Salicional is an old Peter Conacher TC stop in spotted metal: the paper label on the C pipe identifies it as from Job No 1044 (Mr Wyld, do you have this in your records?).
Sorry Stewart, we don't hold the Conacher records as these were taken over by John Willis when he was given the Conacher firm by HW4 in the 1990s.
David Wyld
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My criticism is of no value whatsoever: critcisms never do have much value.
cut......
Perhaps I am just being too harsh on a 22 year old organist with a predigious technique and an oustanding memory, but if there is one thing lacking, it may well come with age and maturity, and that one thing is experiencing suffering. Without it, all art is immature, and perhaps expecting too much of someone so young is unfair.
I sincerely hope that someone will print off my criticisms and hand them to Mr Laube, with the express understanding that he should do the same with them that Reger did with the ones he read.
MM
I have rarely read such patronising clap trap.
David Wyld
(Real Name - as Geoffrey suggests)
(No particular knowledge of Nathan Laube - just stunned by the above).
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May I be permitted to draw attention to FJ's recital tomorrow evening at St. Peter's Collegiate Church in Ruthin.
I'm afraid that I'm unaware of the programme, but I assume that it is revealed on the ever-present source of information which is "organrecitals.com"
DW
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Why is it necessary to burn the upperboards?
I can imagine that some time ago countersinks were either expensive or not available, so that a hot iron would be the most convenient way of countersinking a hole. Why isn't a simple countersink adequate for this purpose?
The burning of the grain of the timber seals it against the leakage of wind - both through the exposed end-grain and also along fissures in the grain of the timber at the point where the pipe tip contacts it. After burning, we wax the boards and this also provides a smoother surface for the pipe tip to sit in.
Actually, I've always liked the way it looks after doing this too!
DW
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Having been used to heated irons for scorching upperboards, etc, I was interested to see that one American builder uses special high-speed bits for doing this. Wonder if any English builder is familiar with this method and the design of such bits? Going back to a much earlier post about electric solderings irons, John Mander hinted that he might have a s/h Laukhuff iron for sale. If that's still the case, I'd be pleased to hear back from him about this.
PM
We still use the 'old-fashioned' method as it is far quicker and the result is much more regular: we also have many different sizes and profiles of these bits for differing requirements. We have three sets of the rotary bits which we do use occasionally, for smaller jobs, but the time taken to heat them up on a block and the fact that, being used on a pillar drill, the whole thing is terribly near one's nose, it can be a little tiresome!
DW
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Not sure if this is allowed but I have some used Ancient and Modern Revised Hymn books to GIVE away or take to the tip. Some SATB some Melody only. PM if interested and near Northampton/Kettering. Does anybody still use these books?
Maybe not, on your planet, but in the real world - YES!
David Wyld
Actually, I think I'm vaguely offended by the thought that you want to take these books to the tip.
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I had hoped we'd be given a break from the "Wesley Carr/Brandon Jackson" mould of high-handed Dean with little regard for the talent and hard work of those in their community.
..... Let alone Employment Law.
DW
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It was a few years ago when I was last there, but one of the eldest of Sheffield's crems on City Road did have a pipe organ. I think it was maybe by Albert Keats.
It still does - we maintain it but getting in there to do a tuning or to carry out broader maintenance is always somewhat difficult due to the popularity of the venue!! The management of the Crematorium is very sure that they do want to keep the organ - apparently it's often the case that the bereaved want to have a "real organ". Good for them.
DW
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The toaster is a three-manual Eminent Cantata with drawstops. Amps and speakers are on the West End gallery. This is a temporary instrument. I think the idea is that after the church restoration is completed the church will purchase a custom-built three-manual Eminent using the existing amps and speakers.
Richard
Custom built - How exciting!
DW
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Just had the pleasure of playing a 2 manual and pedal full tracker instrument in the above tin tabernacle. Far above the size and quality you would expect in such a building. Six flues (up to fifteenth) and a reed on the Great; seven (including a double) and a reed on the Swell. Some of the stops split treble/bass. Possibly late 19th century; fine clear sound. No clue as to maker, with the exception of W on the weights.
Walkers would have been JW (would they?) so does this give any useful clue as to the maker?
Any suggestions gratefully received!
Possibly Wadsworth - we have lots of their old bellows weights, they have "W" on tri-partite tablets, often with two holes in them - at opposite corners. Does this fit the description Patrick?
DW
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The trouble is that they are both "big cheeses" in the parish, both on the Parish Advisory Council, he's a server, she a reader - well you get the picture....
One would have hoped that their obviously-highly-regarded positions would have given them some insight into the advantage of having their Parish organist to deal with it in a professional way instead of pandering to the 'family' expectation of cousin Cuthbert hacking his way through a few pages of one-finger harmonium arrangements of 'The Classics' or 'Songs from the Shows'.
Perhaps you could play them the YouTube thing which I posted up a few days ago, as encouragement?!!
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I thought some of the other contributors might be interested to take a look at the following feature in today's Times of Malta - concerning a Rothwell organ which is undergoing a full restoration at present:
Interesting "Restoration" - especially the lovely angles of the wires with the adjustable collets and the amazing quality and finish of the timber used for the spring rail!
I'm fascinated to hear of the 8-week course offered by Messrs. Oberlinger, they must be very proud.
DW
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And we wonder WHY the general public is turned off by the organ?
DW
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Here Here, .............
Colin Richell.
I think you mean "Hear, Hear."
Mr. Willis now lives in India of course. It's our birthdays today.
DW
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I've just come in from a weekend trip to Lincoln so a bit tired from the drive at the moment - It's no surprise to me that mr. richell has never heard of him. He died in 1965 actually. I'll write some more up on him tomorrow.
DW
*Not the REAL Henry Willis*
Not the Real Henry Willis again!
I got out the Bonavia-Hunt files yesterday and was truly amazed! It seems that he and Henry 3 were great buddies and, among other things, shared a fascination with the then new-fangled Radio - Bonavia-Hunt held several patents for tuning coils and was quite an expert. It was B-H who was responsible for introducing HW3 to the young Alexander Black, one of the young radio pioneers active in London at the time and HW3 then bought the Alexander Black firm, selling "hi-fi" stuff well into the 1950s - that firm is still active in the south of England.
The name of Noel Bonavia-Hunt is, of course, extremely familiar to anyone who has a true interest in the organ and its history and his writings on soundboard design and voicing were widely published in the period between the two wars: there are also several instruments with which he associated himself quite closely and some of these were written about extensively. I went quite recently to inspect the (now vandalised) organ in the Chapel of the old Brompton Hospital and this instrument was one of those which he had had a go at, revoicing-wise: as to how successful or not this exercise was is now impossible to determine.
I spent almost half of the day yesterday in skipping through these files - there is the beginnings of a book here if any of the more literary of the members of this forum might be looking for a project - the files are available!
As a side issue, his father (The Revd. Henry George B-H) founded Trinity College of Music. He died in 1917 and the Revd. Noel Aubrey B-H in 1965, aged 83 I think.
DW
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In the context of research I am due to undertake for a booklet I have promised to write for the Anglo Catholic History Society (history of All Souls' Church Brighton) I have been told that complete sets of Crockfords can be found in the Lambeth Palace library and also owned by Michael Farrer (founder member of the ACHS) who now lives in the infirmary of Charterhouse (in Clerkenwell). No doubt there are other complete sets.
I have three quite old editions but nothing as old as you require.
Malcolm
I've just come in from a weekend trip to Lincoln so a bit tired from the drive at the moment - It's no surprise to me that mr. richell has never heard of him. He died in 1965 actually. I'll write some more up on him tomorrow.
DW
*Not the REAL Henry Willis*
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However I do have problems with (and has already been described above) certain organ advisors only choosing from this list. I don't think it's fair when having been told in the past by the IBO of three very highly regarded organ builders that unless they join the IBO they will never get any work.
And so you SHOULD have a problem with this - those who are doing and saying such things DO have a problem as such actions or even the suggestion is illegal under the now rather strict anti-competition legislation which is in force. You or anyone else who has suffered loss as a consequence of such behaviour can report it to the DTI. I find it impossible however to believe that any such suggestion would have come from the IBO proper - from a particular personage possibly?
In the end, Diocesan Advisers can only make recommendations to a Diocesan Advisory committee which, in turn can only recommend to the Chancellor of the Diocese. There is no right to, or occasion when they can, insist to a parish that they must use any particular builder. As others have said most eloquently, there are good and bad, in and out of the IBO. In the end, membership of an organisation should not guarantee work and non-membership should not (and indeed must not) deny such opportunity.
There is a dilema: how does a Parish make an informed decision - especially in circumstances which I have experienced recently where a perfectly good instrument (Walker) was thrown out by a PCC, advised by a newcomer part-time organist who also happened to be an employee of the firm from which they were advised to purchase their new overly-large electrone which cost twice what they needed to spend on the pipe organ. He did the same thing in a previous Parish and, surprise, he moved on to another within a few weeks of this one being signed and sealed. Believe me, there are bigger problems which we have to face here.
DW
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The first paragraph of his message may give a clue! As his letter was to The Organ, from whom would he have expected there to be a reply?
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Hope this sheds some light on one or two queries...
Just so - and there me Lord I rest me case!
DW
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True, but it's that same law that (let's assume that today there is 30% surplus capacity in the British Organbuilding world) ensures there is not 300% surplus capacity, at which point this advert would be offering national minimum wage (or even, some 'self employed' scam to pay below it).
I'd be absolutely fascinated to know what you ThOUGHT we got paid in this trade?
DW
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The console of the grove organ is close to ground level in the north transept. The transept is completely cut off from the quire by the choir stalls themselves, wooden panneling, etc. to a considerable height. A player at the Grove console is really completely isolated and might as well be in the gift shop.
You mean like Southwark Cathedral; Bangor Cathedral; Hereford Cathedral; Ripon Cathedral; Chester Cathedral and others? This is all complete nonsense and nothing at all which could not (should it ever be needed) be achieved by the means successfully employed elsewhere. There have been other excuses and arguments put forward in many years past as to why the Grove can't be played more regularly , one of them even as late as last year, "Oh that organ is unplayable" - so how do we hear a recording of Carelton playing Léonce in July 2009?
Am I alone in detecting a less-than-impartial note here - the earlier mention of liturgy? Let us not forget what the reply was when Dr. Campbell was asked by the Dean (during a similarly heated discussion about music and 'religion' - "What do you think the Cathedral is here for?" - answer: "To keep the rain off the organ".
The Grove organ is a masterpiece which, for whatever reasons, is in Tewkesbury. It is a national - nay, a World Treasure and will doubtless be preserved, like it or not; useful (to some) or not.
DW
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"when the new (ex Fritts) man has fully acclimatized and dragged himself out of the distant past in terms of hammered lead, we will make some of our own flue pipes."
Like Colin I find this slightly disrespectful. What must be interesting about having somebody who has worked for the house of Fritts is that he will have had direct contact with the application of scientific research into 17th and 18th century organbuilding techniques to the building of new organs in churches with diverse modern music programmes. If it really doesn't matter, then why do you even state the ambition for your ex-Fritts man to make your own pipes for you eventually? I, for one, am very interested in the line taken by Willis in re-applying its own heritage (Willis levers, tierce mixtures) - it's actually not dissimilar to what Henk is doing. I'm sorry that your new magnum-opus is going to the other side of the world.
Bazuin
I can assure you that there is no disrespect - he's a first-rate chap and does excellent work: but - he is limited in his experience of making pipework in OUR style and he himself sees it as a limitation to be overcome.
He's had no lack of research since coming here, we are constantly looking at methods and materials (and style), often reinventing what has been lost in this firm in the past. For instance, I've spent a great deal of the past four months re-drawing ALL of our shallot scales and trying to get back in time, past the 1949 and 1958 revisions of the scales - with a deal of success I think.
DW
Youtube
in General discussion
Posted
Amazing - and very clever!
I was reminded of my favourite Tom & Jerry moment (the look to camera at the closing of the key-fall)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNG7qwu1SAg
DW